Litchfield cell tower plan scrapped

LITCHFIELD >> The submission to construct a new cell tower in Litchfield has been pulled off the table. The proposed 150-foot monopole tower had a pending application to the Inland Wetlands Commission for Wednesday night which has now been withdrawn.

Cellco Partnership, which owns Verizon Wireless, proposed to build the tower in September on the 1.3 acre property owned by Michael and Nicolas Fabbri, which is currently used for commercial purposes. The tower would be disguised as a pine tree, with a 12 by 30 foot shelter at its base. The entire facility would have been fenced in.

However, a deed restriction gives the adjacent White Memorial Conservation Center the right to approve or deny any building on the lot. White Memorial denied the project, killing it before it could even get started.

Cellco currently has three antennas on a tower on 452 Bantam Road at the Connecticut State Police and Department of Public Safety property. The initial plan, according to letters from Cellco’s attorney Kenneth Baldwin of Robinson and Cole to the zoning board, was to upgrade the facility on Bantam Road. The letters state that this option went out the window when project engineers performed structure analysis that the tower could not hold the weight of proposed upgrades.

According to the Litchfield zoning office, if White Memorial did accept the proposal, it would still be up to the Connecticut Siting Council to give the go-ahead for the new tower. The town could weigh in or present itself as an intervener but has no authority.